Report on the development of cruise industry in china

The international cruise lines put thenewest and the best cruise ships on the Chinese market, making it a growth pole todrive the world’s cruise tourism market and an important aspect to

Report on the

Development of Cruise Industry in China (2018)

Hong Wang Editor

in China (2018)

Report on the Development

of Cruise Industry in China (2018)

Green Book on Cruise Industry

123

Jointly published with Social Sciences Academic Press, Beijing, China

The print edition is not for sale in China Mainland Customers from China Mainland please order the print book from: Social Sciences Academic Press.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018964683

© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2019

This work is subject to copyright All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part

of the material is concerned, speci fically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on micro films or in any other physical way, and transmission

or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a speci fic statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional af filiations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

2018 is the first year to implement the guiding principles of the 19th NationalCongress of the Communist Party of China, the 40th anniversary of the reform andopening-up policy, the key year for building a moderately prosperous society in anall-round way and implementing the 13th Five-year Plan, and an important year foraccelerating the extension of the cruise industry chain in China In the new era, oureconomy has changed from the high-speed growth to the high-quality development.

It is now in the key period of upgrading the development mode, optimizing theeconomic structure and changing the growth momentum, providing an excellentdevelopment environment, new development opportunities, and motivation for thesound development of cruise economy in China

After over ten years of rapid development, the cruise market in China haschanged the world’s cruise tourism map The international cruise lines put thenewest and the best cruise ships on the Chinese market, making it a growth pole todrive the world’s cruise tourism market and an important aspect to deliver theChinese culture and lifestyle and promote the tourism diplomacy In order to givefull play to the advantages of the cruise tourism market and enhance the economiceffects of the cruise tourism, the transformation from the cruise tourism to the cruiseindustry has been launched across China, starting the strategic development path

of the full industry chain, extending the cruise industry chain, promoting the designand building of domestic cruise ships and the building of local cruise shipfleets,improving the cruise-related industries, and continuously enhancing the economiceffects and social effects of the cruise industry With over ten years of development,the cruise industry of China has become increasingly important in making eco-nomic contributions to the global cruise industry, being an important engine leadingthe sustainable and sound development of the global cruise economy, and providingmore confidence and support for the development of the world’s cruise industry.During the rapid development of the cruise industry in China, there are alsomany new problems and challenges In terms of the design and building of cruiseships, despite the advantages in shipbuilding, there are still great difficulties

v

For example, a complete industry supporting system has not yet been establishedand the localization rate of the supporting industries is low In terms of the con-struction of the cruise ports, as the cruise market in China now enters a period ofadjustment and the cruise ports choose to make investments in expansion one afteranother, the cruise market is downsized to some extent, which results in an increase

in the vacancy rate of the cruise ports and reduction in the earning capacity Interms of the cruise distribution channels, being“narrow and long”, there is a smallernumber of distributors and lack of complete cruise ticket management platforms,the direct selling model of the cruise lines develops slowly, and there are obstaclesfor the foreign-funded cruise travel agencies to participate in the market distribution

in China In terms of the development of cruise routes, there are still policy tlenecks in the open-sea cruise routes, offshore cruise routes, “multi-port call”routes, etc In terms of the concentrated development, the cruise industry presents alow concentration degree, there is lack of sufficient industry factors, and theindustrial cluster effect is not obvious

bot-In order to better reflect the current development situations and trends of thecruise industry in China and make systematic and in-depth study on the cruisemarket in China, Shanghai International Cruise Business Institute, a famousresearch institute for cruise industry, took the lead in organizing the preparation

of the Green Book on Cruise Industry It is the annual research report preparedbased on the current development situations of the cruise industry As the currentlymost authoritative research works on cruise economy, it has received high attention

in the tourism academic circle at home and abroad and within the internationalcruise tourism industry and is highly evaluated and affirmed Its researchachievements will be an important theoretical basis for governments and enterprises

to make policies and planning for the development of the cruise industry It is myhonor to work as the compiling consultant of the Green Book on Cruise Industry,and I am greatly gratified for the achievements of the Book

In view of the latest trend of the cruise market development in China, the specialtopic“Special Articles for High-quality Tourism: Common Value and GovernmentManagement” is presented in the Green Book on Cruise Industry 2018, based onthe previous versions, to discuss the quality development patterns and paths of thecruise tourism in China, the high-quality development mechanism of the cruisetourism under the background of global tourism as well as the cruise tourism marketcultivation and standardization system in China, providing good reference value tobetter promote the high-quality development of the cruise market in China.Here, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the editors and staff behindthe“Green Book on Cruise industry” for their hard work and to all the friends whohave been paying close attention to, concerned about, and supported the develop-ment of the cruise industry I hope that our colleagues could make persistent efforts

to achieve the rapid and high-quality development of the cruise industry in China

by providing better ideas and patterns and offering their wisdom and strength Atthe same time, I hope that I can joint with all people within the industry in the

building of the local cruise industry in China to provide more comfortable, venient, and pleasant cruise services, better meet consumers’ needs and longing for

con-a becon-autiful life, strive to revitcon-alize the loccon-al cruise industry in Chincon-a, con-and mcon-ake duecontributions

Shanghai, China

June 2018

Qian YongchangFormer Minister

of the Ministry of TransportChairman of China Communicationsand Transportation Association

Annual Report on China ’s Cruise

Part I General Report

1 Research on the Development of the World’s Cruise Industry

During 2017–2018: Strong Demands Stimulate the Sustainable

High Growth 3Hong Wang, Jianyong Shi and Junqing Mei

2 Study on Development of Chinese Cruise Industry in 2017–2018:

Steady Operation, High Quality and Favorable Situation 37Hong Wang, Xinliang Ye and Jianyong Shi

3 Top 10 Hot Topics in the Development of China’s Cruise Industry

in 2017–2018 73Hong Wang, Jianyong Shi, Xinliang Ye, Younong Wang, Ling Qiu

and Junqing Mei

Part II Special Articles on High-Quality Tourism: Common Value

and Government Governance

4 Research on Mechanism for High-Quality Development of Cruise

Tourism Under the All-for-One Tourism Background 95Jianyong Shi, Ling Qiu and Xinliang Ye

5 Research on High-Quality Development Pattern and Path

Improvement of Cruise Tourism in China 109Ping Su, Shaojun Shen and Junqing Mei

6 Research on China’s Cruise Tourism Market Cultivation

and Standardization System 121Xinliang Ye and Younong Wang

xiii

Part III The Cruise Industry

7 Research on the Dynamic Information System of Global Cruise

Economy on the Basis of Internet 133Ling Qiu and Linkai Qi

8 Comparative Research on Development Modes of Global Cruise

Economy Circles 149Mingyuan Wu, Xiyan Wu and Daofei Liu

9 Research on the Development of Shanghai Cruise Tourism

Under the Background of Tourism Integration in the Yangtze

River Delta 165Huang Huang

10 Cruise Tourism Integration and Regional Tourism Integration in

the Yangtze River Delta 181Xiaodong Sun, Rongxin Ni and Yating Hou

Part IV Policy Suggestions

11 Design Features and Construction Enlightenments of Oasis-Class

Luxury Cruise Ships 201Xinliang Ye, Xueting Wang, Yanan Wang, Yujie Luo, Gang Yang

and Ruihong Sun

12 Establishment and Application of National Integrity Management

System for Cruise Ports 219Jingjun Gu

13 Research on Building and Application of China Cruise Terminal

Bid Data 235Yanhui Gao, Cheng Chen and Xinlei Qin

14 Analysis on the Paths for Building a Cruise Talent Information

Database in China 255Guodong Yan, Shuangshuang Liu, Wei Wang, Wenlu Shen

and Jing Shen

Appendix A: Analysis on the Construction and Operation of Cruise

Ports in China in 2017–2018 271Appendix B: Analysis on China’s Cruise Design and Building

Development in 2017–2018 279Appendix C: Analysis on Economic Contribution of International

Cruise Market in 2017–2018 289

Report on the Development of the Cruise Industry in China 2018, an annual researchreport prepared by the cruise industry experts and scholars at home and abroadinvited by Shanghai International Cruise Business Institute based on the currentdevelopment situations of the international cruise industry, is an important part of the

“X Book Series” of the Social Sciences Academic Press (China) The Green Book onCruise Industry for this year is the 5th book of the series, consisting offive parts, i.e.,

“General Report”, “Special Articles for High-quality Tourism: Common Value andGovernment Management”, “The Industry”, “Policy Suggestions”, and “Appendix”,and it has richer and more perfect contents in comparison with the previous versions.Under the Book, the development environment of the cruise industry at home andabroad during 2017–2018 as well as the development situations, strategic paths, andfuture trends is analyzed in the form of the General Report, and the current devel-opment trend of the cruise industry in China is introduced based on the top ten hottopics With the economic development trend from the high-speed growth to thehigh-quality development in China, the new topic“Special Articles for High-qualityTourism: Common Value and Government Management” is presented in the Book todiscuss the quality development patterns and paths of the cruise tourism in China, thehigh-quality development mechanism of the cruise tourism as well as the cruisetourism market cultivation and standardization system, so as to better enhance thequality of the cruise market development in China In Part III“The Cruise Industry”and Part IV“Policy Suggestions” under the Book, the whole picture of the cruiseeconomy in China in the new era is presented, problems during the industrialdevelopment are analyzed, and corresponding policy suggestions are given.Based on the review of the development achievements and problems of the cruiseindustry in China during 2017–2018, the General Report makes systematic andscientific forecast on the development in 2018 In the specific parts, the discussion ismainly based on the high-quality development of the cruise economy, the structureupgrading and optimization of the cruise industry, and the policy suggestions InPart III “The Cruise Industry”, in-depth analysis is made on the cruise tourismintegration, the Yangtze River Delta region tourism integration, the developmentpatterns of the global cruise economic circle, the Oasis-class cruise ship design and

xv

building, and the dynamic information system for the global cruise economy in theInternet era In Part IV“Policy Suggestions”, constructive suggestions are given onthe cruise port credit system construction, cruise port big data construction, cruisetalent information base construction, etc; the responsibilities and obligations of themain parties during the development of the cruise industry are specified, and themanagement mechanism of each link is improved, so as to guarantee the steady andsound development of the cruise industry in China.

In 2018, the cruise market in China has slowed down the scale increase andentered a period of adjustment However, due to the steady and sound economicdevelopment, upgrade of people’s consumption level, tourism prosperity anddevelopment, and other favorable factors, the cruise market in China is still full ofdevelopment vitality and huge development potential During the development

of the cruise market in China, the cruise industry policy system and the cruisemarket cultivation system are being continuously improved and the cruise marketgovernance system construction is being enhanced, providing solid foundation forthe sound development of the cruise industry in China On the whole, the cruiseindustry in China faces both development opportunities and challenges Presently,

in order to promote the further development of the cruise industry, there should bemore investment in the cruise tourism market cultivation in China, the orderlydevelopment of the cruise tourism market competition in Shanghai should bepromoted, favorable conditions for the development of the cruise inbound tourismshould be created, and favorable policies on the development of new cruise routesshould be obtained In the future, the cruise industry chain of China will acceleratethe extension, the cruise market will keep high-quality development, and the eco-nomic contribution will significantly improve, so as to strengthen its great influence

in the world’s cruise economy map The international cruise home port will strive to

be among the world’s top three, with the international influence, competitiveness,and brand force being at the world-class level

The publication of this book is the cooperation result of the government,industry, academics, research institutions, and enterprises It has received guidanceand support from all these organizations Especially thanks Shanghai WusongkouInvestment (Group) Co., Ltd for its full support for the publication of this book!

Keywords Annual research report
Development situation
Development trend
High quality

Wang Hong, Doctor of Business Administration from Shanghai Jiao TongUniversity and Postdoctoral Fellow of Applied Economics from Fudan University,

is now Secretary of Baoshan District Committee of the Communist Party of China,Fellow of Shanghai International Cruise Business Institute, Doctoral Supervisor andProfessor in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, enjoying the special allowance granted

by the State Council, Deputy to the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 14th Shanghai MunicipalPeople’s Congress, and Candidate for “the New Century National HundredThousand-and-Ten Thousand Talents Project”

She has been serving as the Vice-Chairman of the Professional EducationSteering Committee on Business Administration of Colleges and Universities, theMinistry of Education, for a long time, and she once served as the Vice-Chairman

of the Professional Education Steering Committee on Management Science andEngineering of Colleges and Universities, the Ministry of Education At present,she is one of the scholars listed in the New Century Talent Support Program of theMinistry of Education, Shanghai Dawn (Shuguang) Program, and Shanghai Dawn(Shuguang) Tracking Program, honored as the leading talent and excellent aca-demic leader of Shanghai Municipality

Taking the initiative to link up with the development of cruise industry at homeand abroad, she has been innovatively exploring the connotation of the specialty

“tourism management,” taking the lead in starting the “cruise economy” bachelor'sdegree program and master's degree program, and serving as the academic leader inChina The“Innovative Practice For the Government-Industry-University-Institute-Customer-based Cultivation of Urgently Needed Talents for International CruiseIndustry” project led by her won the National Second Prize for TeachingAchievements and Shanghai Special Prize for Teaching Achievements in 2014 Shehas also been paying attention to the direct transformation and popularization ofscientific research achievement into productivity, and many of her achievementsalready have been transformed into the basis for the cruise lines and the govern-ments to make decisions She has successively organized several major projects of

xvii

National Social Science Foundation and national soft science projects, six majorprojects of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and over 30provincial and ministerial research projects, published over 70 monographs andpapers, many of which have been included by EI and ISTP More than 30 of herresearch achievements have been successively awarded, including the first prize

of Shanghai for Governmental Decision-Making and Consultation ResearchAchievements, the second prize of Shanghai for Science and Technology ProgressAward, the Excellent Award of Shanghai for Deng Xiaoping Theory Research andPublicity, the Excellent Award of Shanghai For Internal Discussion of Philosophyand Social Science, thefirst prize of Shanghai for Teaching Achievements, the firstprize of Shanghai for Education and Scientific Research Achievements, and otherprovincial and ministerial awards

She once served as the Executive Committee Member of the All-ChinaFederation of Trade Union, Representative of the All-China Women’s Federation,President of Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Vice-Chairman ofShanghai Federation of Trade Unions, Vice-Chairman of Shanghai CommercialEnterprise Management Association, Vice-Chairman of Shanghai Creative IndustryAssociation, Vice-Chairman of Shanghai Science and Art Society, and Director ofShanghai International Cruise Business Institute

Part I

General Report

Research on the Development

of the World’s Cruise Industry During

2017–2018: Strong Demands Stimulate

the Sustainable High Growth

Hong Wang, Jianyong Shi and Junqing Mei

Abstract In 2018, the global economic growth rate has been significantly improved,

providing a good foundation for the development of the cruise industry Cruise willcontinue to maintain a positive development trend in 2018, with 26.9 million pas-sengers taking cruise, and is expected to reach 37.6 million in 2025 Cruise mar-ket concentration remained high, with 35.4% in the Caribbean and 15.8% in theMediterranean in 2017, respectively The trend of large-scale and mega-scale cruiseconstruction is more obvious The newly built cruise ships are basically over 100,000gross ton, and there are 91 cruise ships under construction before 2026 Throughoutthe development of the global cruise industry, although North America’s share inthe global cruise market has declined, the advantage has been maintained for a longtime, and due to the headquarters of cruise enterprises and the economy of the cruisehome port has made greater economic contributions The demand of European cruisemarket is stronger than that of North America, which makes it have a strong positionand development potential in the development of cruise industry chain Due to itsgood economic development situation and relatively stable international environ-ment, Asia-Pacific has a strong potential for the development of the cruise market Inthe future, the Asia-Pacific region will witness volatile growth in the process of main-taining a high-speed growth trend China’s cruise market has good basic conditionsfor development and good prospects for development

Keywords Cruise industry chain·Emerging market·Economic contribution·Market prospect

© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2019

H Wang (ed.), Report on the Development of Cruise Industry in China (2018),

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3780-2_1

3

1 Analysis on the Development Environment for the Global Cruise Industry

1.1 The Global Economy Is Recovering Steadily

and the Economic Growth Is Strong

In 2017, the global economic development tended to a good prospect, graduallyrealizing the profound adjustment after the economic crisis, with both the economicgrowth rate and the growth forecast being obviously improved The economic entityand emerging market in the developed countries as well as the economic entity indeveloping countries had satisfactory economic growth and maintain sound devel-opment momentum

According to the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2018 issued by the

United Nations, the world economy in 2017 realized a growth rate of 3%, which isthe highest growth for the past seven years In terms of the global economic devel-opment and growth situations, the economic growth rate in 2017 in over 2/3 of thecountries surpassed that in 2016 The economic growth rate maintaining good devel-opment has become a common phenomenon According to the data released by theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF), the global economic growth rate in 2017 reached3.6%, which was the fastest growth in the past 10 years Despite a certain difference

in the growth rate between the two sets of data, it was shown that the world omy presented good development momentum, the growth rate of the internationaltrade was obviously improved and the development of the global manufacturingindustry was effectively promoted China, as the largest developing country in theworld, put forwards the “Belt and Road” Initiative, “International Cooperation onProduction Capacity” Initiative, etc., which will play an important role in promotingthe expansion of international cooperation space and fields In the global economicdevelopment plate, South Asia and East Asia are the regions with the fastest growthrate and the most development potential and development vitality In 2017, the growthrate of the gross domestic product (GDP) in South Asia and East Asia reached 6%,which was significantly higher than that in other regions in the world As the world’ssecond largest economy, China contributed 1/3 of the world economy The economicdevelopment in Asia area has had been closely related to the good economic growthtrend, improvement in individual consumption capacity, increase in the total amount

econ-of exports as well as the loose macro-economic development policies in China In

2018 and 2019, the economic development in Asia area will maintain good growthtrend The steady development is expected to stand at 5.8 and 5.9%, respectively

1.2 The Global Economic Development Still Faces Many

Risks

In 2017, the various risks of the global economic development had not been mentally addressed, and there was certain accumulation Despite some improvement

funda-in the short term, there were still unfavorable conditions, such as the deterioration

of the financial environment, changes in the international trade policies and strainedgeopolitical relation For example, the quantitative easing policy as well as negativeinterest rate of the developed economy, such as Europe and Japan, still caused assetbubble; and, the Fed’s shrinking balance sheet policy as well as raising interest ratepolicy might break the risk of asset bubble For the global economic development,there were issues such as increase in the total debts and rise of protectionism Theeconomic imbalance has caused a series of problems For example, the geopoliticalconflicts, traditional and non-traditional security, etc were highlighted Moreover,there was still the problem of weak economic growth Globally, the three major prob-lems, i.e., the insufficient economic growth momentum, untimely economic gover-nance and unbalanced development has not been satisfactorily solved yet; especially,the driving ability of the traditional economy to the world economy was reduced.Although the emerging technology appears continuously, a good economic growthpoint has not formed yet

In 2018, the global economy and regional economy will maintain a good

devel-opment trend According to the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2018, the

global economic growth rate in 2018 and 2019 will be basically stable at 3% Theeconomic growth in East Asian region in 2018 and 2019 is expected to stand at 5.7and 5.6%, respectively Since January 2018, large-scale tax reduction measures havebeen taken in the United States, which will promote the economic growth to a certainextent From the perspective of global economic development, on the basis of moder-ate inflation and low interest rates, personal consumption is still an importance force

to promote the economic growth In 2018, there are trade disputes between Chinaand the United States On June 15, 2018, the US Government announced the list

of commodities on which additional tariff would be imposed For some ties, the additional tariff is 25% For some commodities, the additional tariff would

commodi-be imposed from July 6, 2018 China responded immediately that there would commodi-bedeflationary effect in China reducing resident consumption demand and purchasingcapacity

1.3 The Scale and Economic Contribution of Global Tourism Market Is Being Developed Sustainably

According to the Report on World Tourism Economy Trends (2018) issued by World

Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF), the economic trend in major countries in theworld gradually got better in 2017, the consumer confidence index (CCI) in various

Table 1 Development of global tourism in 2017–2018

Proportion of the total number of global tourists in

Growth rate of the gross revenue of global tourism

(%)

Data source The Report on World Tourism Economy Trends (2018)

countries showed sustainable improvement, the tourism demand in various majoreconomies increased steadily, and the infrastructure of transnational tourism wasconstantly improved In 2017, the total number of global tourists increased rapidlyand reached 11.88 billion, which showed a year-on-year growth of 6.8% and was1.6 times of global population size It is estimated that the growth rate of the number

of global tourists in 2018 will slow down and will be 6.7% The estimated totalnumber of global tourists in 2018 will reach 12.67 billion and will be 1.7 times ofglobal population size The gross revenue of global tourism reached USD 5.3 trillion,which showed a year-on-year growth of 4.3 and was 6.7% of global GDP The grossrevenue of global tourism is expected to be USD 5.6 trillion

The growth rate of global tourism has exceeded the economic growth rate forseven consecutive years; and the growth rate (4.6%) is higher than that in otherindustries, including manufacturing industry (4.2%), retail and wholesale (3.4%),agriculture, forestry and fisheries (2.6%) and financial services (2.5%), and is morethan half higher than the overall economic growth rate in the world (3%) (Tables1and2)

Generally speaking, European, American and Asia-Pacific markets account for97.3% of the total number of global tourists, and the gross revenue of tourism inEurope region, America and Asia-Pacific regions accounts for 95.0% of the grossrevenue of global tourism In 2017, the total number of European tourists reached1.769 billion, showing a growth of 2.1% over the previous year, and the gross revenue

of tourism reached USD 1.63 trillion, showing a growth of 1.1% over the previousyear In 2018, the total number of tourists and the gross revenue of tourism in Europeregion are expected to reach 1.806 billion and USD 1.67 trillion respectively, and

Table 2 Forecast of global share of major sectors of global tourism in 2018

Pacific

Data source The Report on World Tourism Economy Trends (2018)

Table 3 Development and forecast of regional tourism market in the world

Total number of tourists (Unit: 100

Growth rate of the gross revenue of

tourism (%)

Data source The Report on World Tourism Economy Trends (2018)

the growth rate of the total number of tourists will remain unchanged from that in

2017, while the growth rate of the gross revenue of tourism will be 1.5% higher thanthat in 2017 and will be 2.6% In 2017, the total number of tourists in Asia-Pacificregion reached 7.914 billion, showing a growth of 9.4% over the previous year, andthe gross revenue of tourism reached USD 1.74 trillion, showing a growth of 6.9%over the previous year In 2018, the total number of tourists and the gross revenue

of tourism in Asia-Pacific region are expected to reach 8.617 billion and USD 1.89trillion respectively; compared with 2017, the growth rate of the total number oftourists in Asia-Pacific region will slow down and will be 8.9%, 0.8% lower thanthat in 2017, while the growth rate of the gross revenue of tourism will be 1.7%higher than that in 2017 and will be 8.6% In 2017, the total number of tourists inAmerican region reached 1.875 billion, showing a growth of 1.9% over the previousyear; the gross revenue of tourism reached USD 1.62 trillion, showing a growth of4.9% over the previous year In 2018, the total number of tourists and the grossrevenue of tourism in American region are expected to reach 1.917 billion and USD1.73 trillion respectively; the growth rate of the total number of tourists will be higherthan that in 2017 and will reach 2.2%; and the growth rate of the gross revenue oftourism will be 1.3% higher than that in 2017 and will be 6.2% (Table3)

According to the global share of the total number of tourists and the gross revenue

of tourism in major sectors around the world, the proportion of Europe decreasedcontinuously: the market share decreased from 15.6 to 14.9% and the share of thegross revenue of tourism from 32.0 to 31.0%; the share of the number of tourists

Table 4 Top ten countries in the total number of global tourists and the gross revenue of global

tourism in 2017

(Unit: 100 million)

(Unit: USD 100 billion)

Data source The Report on World Tourism Economy Trends (2018)

in American decreased from 16.5 to 15.8%, while the share of the gross revenue

of tourism increased slightly from 30.7 to 30.9%; the share in Asia-Pacific regioncontinued to rise significantly and increased to 1.6%, and the share of the grossrevenue of tourism increased by 0.8% from 32.3 to 33.1%; The share of the MiddleEast decreased by 0.1%; the share of Africa remained the same

In 2017, the total number of tourists in Asia-Pacific region reached 7.914 billion,showing a growth of 9.4% over the previous year, and the gross revenue of tourismreached USD 1.74 trillion, showing a growth of 6.9% over the previous year In 2018,the total number of tourists and the gross revenue of tourism in Asia-Pacific regionare expected to reach 8.617 billion and USD 1.89 trillion respectively; comparedwith 2017, the growth rate of the total number of tourists in Asia-Pacific region willslow down and will be 8.9%, 0.8% lower than that in 2017, while the growth rate ofthe gross revenue of tourism will be 1.7% higher than that in 2017 and will be 8.6%(Table4)

In 2017, among the top 10 countries in global tourism, the total number of touristsreceived in America reached 1.25 billion, ranking 3rd in the world; the gross revenue

of tourism reached USD 1.03 trillion, ranking first in the world The total number

of tourists received in Brazil reached 180 million, ranking eighth in the world; thegross revenue of tourism in Mexico reached USD 140 billion, ranking ninth in theworld

Among the top 10 countries in global tourism, the number of Asia-pacific countrieswas only next to the number of European countries In 2017, the total number oftourists in China, India, Japan and Indonesia reached 4.53 billion, 1.54 billion, 320million and 260 million and ranked first, second, fourth, and sixth in the lit of the totalnumber of tourists received nationwide respectively In terms of the gross revenue

of tourism, the gross revenue of tourism of China, Japan and India ranked second,fifth, and seventh The three countries became the fastest growing countries.

is mostly dominated by outbound tourism The cruise tourism market graduallyexpands, the cruise products get richer and richer, and the pursuit of quantity istransformed to the pursuit of product quality In the growth stage, cruise tourismchanges from the domination of outbound tourism to the synchronization of outboundtourism and inbound tourism, but the scale of outbound tourism is greater than that ofinbound tourism as a whole In the maturity stage, the outbound cruise tourism andinbound cruise tourism develop synchronously, with the scale of outbound tourismbasically equivalent to that of inbound tourism

The global cruise market grows steadily The scale of global cruise market in

2017 reached 25.80 million persons and was 4.5% higher than that (24.70 million)

in 2016 From 2007 to 2017, the cruise market demand in the world increased from15.67 million persons to 25.80 million persons, increased by 64.6% According tothe statistical data from Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and the latestreport issued by CLIA, cruise tourism will keep positive developing situation and26.90 million persons are expected to take a cruise ship in 2018 There will be anincrease from the 25.80 million persons in 2017 Cruise industry has been vigorouslydeveloping for more than 30 years The staggering growth of global market promotedthe emergence of new destinations and resources The impetus was North Americandemand first, and then the demand from Europe increased constantly; recently, theimpetus has been emerging markets such as Australia and China The demand isexpected to be 37.60 million persons in 2025, indicating that international cruisemarket still has good development prospect and market potential (Fig.1)

According to the transport capacity, bed numbers, days and nights, and distribution

of the cruise ships, the popular tourist destinations in 2017 included: Caribbean(35.4%); Mediterranean (15.8%); other European regions except for Mediterranean(14.6%); Asian region (10.4%); Australia/New Zealand/the Pacific region (6.0%);Alaska region (4.3%); and, South America (2.1%) (Figs.2and3)

Fig 1 Development of scale of global cruise market (Unit: one million persons) Data source

Cruise Lines International Association

Fig 2 Distribution of global cruise tourism destinations in 2017 Data source Cruise Lines

Inter-national Association

Caribbean is the most developed region for cruise tourism in the world and themost important cruise tourism destination From the comparison of cruise tourists andnon-cruise tourists, it can be found that Caribbean is the most popular destinationamong tourists Besides, cruise tourists have stronger preference for such cruisetourism destinations as Mexico, Alaska, Canada, Europe, Hawaii, and Bermuda andother countries or regions than non-cruise tourism

Fig 3 The best destinations in the eyes of cruise tourists in the world Data source Cruise Lines

The possibility for cruise tourists to travel with their friends, partners/companions

or children is 40% higher than that for land tourists Compared with 2016, moretravelers were willing to spend time with their family on a vacation in 2017 It isthe best to experience cruise tourism in a team Cruise tourists have high satisfactionwhen traveling with others From organized teams to friends, families, children,partners and spouses, traveling in a team is far more interesting than traveling alone.The cruise tourists who really enjoy traveling with others made 2017 the “Year ofFriendship” for cruise tourists The possibility for cruise tourists to carry spouses(+9%), partner (+6%), children under 18 (+7%) and friends (+6%) is higher thanthat for non-cruise tourists More than three fourths (78%) of cruise tourists travelwith their spouses, nearly one third (32%) of cruise tourists travel with their children,and almost one fourth (22%) of cruise tourists travel with friends (Fig.4)

(2) The income level of tourists will directly affect the choice of cruise products

In terms of the effects of income on cruise tourism, when cruise is deemed as apreferable choice among vacation options, income does no play a major role 66%

of people with an income less than USD 100,000 are willing to choose a cruisetour rather than land tour, and 70% of people with an income above USD 200,000are willing to travel by a cruise ship Cruise tourists are still highly loyal to their

Fig 4 Comparison of features of trips of international cruise tourists and non-cruise tourists Data

source Cruise Lines International Association

Fig 5 Whether tourists in different income stages choose cruise tourism Data source Cruise Lines

International Association

preferred way of vacation More than half of cruise tourists (58%) hold that a cruisetour is the best way for the vacation, and such a view remains unchanged They aremost satisfied with river cruise (81%) and sea cruise (73%), followed by hotels andresorts on land (62%) Nine in 10 persons say they “will probably or definitely” travel

by cruise Regardless of the income, everyone can enjoy cruise Cruise is the mostpopular among travelers (75%) with an income between USD 150,000 and 200,000.However, 66% of people with an income below USD 100,000 believe cruise tour

is a better way for the vacation Only 70% of tourists with an income above USD200,000 are in favor of a cruise tour Therefore, income is not the threshold in cruisemarket (Fig.5)

Fig 6 Cruise routes chosen by tourists in different income stages Data source Cruise Lines

Inter-national Association

Although higher income is favorable for long time of cruise navigation, according

to the statistics of last cruise trip, it can be found that 6–8 days’ trip is the mostpopular so far Such trip arrangements account for 57% in tourists with an incomebelow USD 100,000 and 43% in tourists with an income above USD 200,000 High-income tourists are most likely to take a short 3-day tour (12%) or a tour as long as

16 days (5%) There also are 3–5 days’ and 9–15 days’ cruise tours The number ofmarket visitors of last cruise trip is around 20% About 24% of consumers with anincome below USD 100,000 say their last cruise trip is that of three- to five-day and14% hold that the last cruise trip is that of nine- to fifteen-day On the contrary, 14%

of people with an annual income of USD 200,000 say their last cruise trip is that ofthree- to five-day and 26% hold that the last cruise trip is that of nine- to fifteen-day(Fig.6)

Cruise tourists with higher income are more likely to take advanced cruise, luxurycruise and river cruise Suites and balconies are the most facilities in the eyes of allcruise tourists, but springs and salons are more important for tourists with higherincome Health clubs and gyms, however, are more important for tourists with lowerincome The importance of famous chef for the population with an income betweenUSD 150,000 and USD 200,000 (63%) is more than twice of that for populationwith higher or lower income, and is significantly higher than that (56%) of suits andbalconies (Fig.7)

(3) There are deviations between facility importance for tourists and usability

In terms of the usage of service facilities, an average of around 41% of cruisetourists show their interest in children services, including babysitting service andchildren and juvenile programs Only 13% of tourists say they have actually usedsuch services Many services and activities are unexpectedly popular among tourists.Only 23% of cruise tourists say they want casinos and gambling, 24% want on-boardshopping and duty free, 25% want swimming pool and massage bathtub, 26% areinterested in specialty restaurant, 32% are interested in on-board recreational facil-

Fig 7 Most concerned cruise facilities for tourists with different ranges of income Data source

Cruise Lines International Association

Fig 8 Comparison of facilities that are deemed important and actually used by tourists Data

source Cruise Lines International Association

ities and 33% want celebrity/famous entertainment 70% of cruise tourists actuallyparticipated in performances, music and comedy performances—almost twice of thetourists showing interest in such activities In fact, on-board recreational facilities arethe most commonly-used function on the whole cruise ship Other facilities are alsomore popular than expected Nearly half of tourists (49%) say they would go to on-board casino/gambling (+26% more than those with such hope), 48% buy things onboard (+24%), 58% swim or relax in swimming pool or water flow massage bathtub(+33%), and 45% have meals in specialty restaurants (+19%) (Fig.8)

Fig 9 Comparison of satisfaction with travel agencies between cruise tourists and non-cruise

tourists Data source Cruise Lines International Association

(4) Cruise tourists’ satisfaction with travel agencies is increasing

Compared with non-cruise tourists, cruise tourists are more satisfied with travelagencies Their satisfaction with the thoughtfulness of travel agencies is as high as71%, while the satisfaction of non-cruise tourists is 58%; the satisfaction of cruisetourists with the knowledge of travel agencies is 72%, while that of non-cruise tourists

is 57% In general, tourists are very satisfied with travel agencies The satisfaction

of cruise tourists with travel agencies is 68% and that of non-cruise tourists is 55%

(5) Different tourists for cruise tourism have different motivations

For different actors, the original motivations for their action motivations are icantly different and may be affected by such factors as their background, experiencesand the material and spiritual level they pursue The motivations of actors are sig-nificantly correlated to their needs Maslow’s hierarchy of needs indicated that there

signif-is a hierarchy of needs from low to high The formation of the hierarchy of needs

is affected by personal economic factor, spiritual pursuit, education background andother factors Tourists’ inner desire is the inner driving force for their being eager toget rid of the daily trifles, work pressure and so on, and choosing to go to a touristdestination that can bring them physical and mental pleasure and ease The “tensileforce” is the outer force from the tourism destinations tourists want to go The natu-

Fig 10 Reasons for different age groups to participate in cruise tourism Data source Cruise Lines

is the intrinsic factor of tourism behavior Cruise tour is a relatively closed travelmode The motivation of tourists participating in cruise tourism is different from that

of general travels The motivations promoting tourists to participate in cruise tourismare not unique Escaping from work or life stress, deepening affection, pursuing noveltravel experience, expanding social hub and experiencing exotic culture will formthe motivation for tourists to participate in cruise tourism According to the study

on the motivations of cruise tourism, the motivation to escape the current life andseek a relaxed mood plays a significant role The propaganda promotion of cruisetourism information also plays an obvious role For tourists who participate in cruisetourism for the first time, to experience novelty is an important psychological impetus(Fig.10)

Among the travel motivations of cruise tourists, tourists of different ages have ferent motivations due to the effects of their growing environment and other aspects

dif-In general, however, broadening horizons, increasing knowledge, pursuit of ation and elimination of life stress are the main travel motivations This is also directlycorrelated to the leisure vacation characteristics of cruise tourism Tourists can under-stand local enthusiasm and regional cultures in different countries and regions andcan temporarily forget their troubles and relax in trips Other motivations mainlyinclude obtaining more knowledge, pursuing the romance of cruise tourism, gather-

relax-Fig 11 Reasons for different genders to participate in cruise tourism Data source Cruise Lines

(6) Analysis on the factors influencing the duration of cruise tourism

See Fig.12

2.3 The Transport Capacity of Global Cruise Market

Maintains the Trend of Continuous Growth

According to the global shipbuilding and the statistical data of Clarkson, as of lateMarch, 2018, the order size held by global shipbuilding enterprises has been 3047ships of 200.6 million dead weight ton, showing a year-on-year growth of 2.7%

in terms of dead weight ton In 2016, the order size held by global shipbuildingenterprises remained around 240 million dead weight ton, but showed a gradualdowntrend as a whole In 2017, the order size continued to decrease sharply and hasincreased since 2018 The number of global cruise ships in 2017 was 449 In 2018,

27 ocean cruise ships, river cruise ships and cruise ships for polar regions will belaunched In 2016, a total of 26 cruise ships were newly launched in global cruisemarket, including 9 ocean cruise ships and 17 river cruise ships Cruise shipbuildingorders are scheduled to 2026 A total of 91 cruise ships are under construction before

2026 The total price of the order is USD 58 billion and the gross construction tonnage

is 239,200 t The number of cruise ships to be delivered in 2019 is 24 and is the most(Table5)

Cruise ships are getting larger and huger obviously The newly-built cruise shipsare basically above 100,000 GT Royal Caribbean cruise lines own four 220,000 tOasis-class giant cruise ships: Oasis of the Seas, MS Allure of the Seas, and Har-mony of the Seas and MS Symphony of the Seas The standard capacity is above

5400 persons and the maximum capacity is above 6200 persons Such cruise shipscan be said to be “mobile marine cities” and have important hardware foundationfor enriching the cruise facilities space and enhance the cruise tourism experience(Table6)

Currently, the largest cruise ship in the world is the “Symphony of the Seas”,the gross tonnage of which reached 230,000, the number of guest rooms 2775, thestandard capacity 5494 persons, the maximum capacity 6780 persons and the number

of crew 2175 In June 2018, Royal Caribbean International announced in Shanghaithat the cruise ship “Spectrum of the Seas” specially tailored for the Chinese marketwill go on its maiden voyage in Shanghai on June 6, 2019 Its gross tonnage is168,000 t, the standard capacity 4246 persons and the maximum capacity 5622persons (Table7)

Royal Caribbean cruise “Spectrum of the Seas” will be deployed at ShanghaiCruise Home Port from June to December 2019, and at Hong Kong Cruise Home Port

in December; the “Quantum of the Seas” will be deployed at Shanghai Cruise HomePort from January to May 2019, and at Tianjin Cruise Home Port during May–Octo-ber; the “Voyager of the Seas” will be deployed at Hong Kong and Shenzhen cruisehome ports from April to August 2019 In June 2018, MSC Mediterranean CruiseGroup and STX French Shipyard signed an order to build a fifth “legendary” classcruise ship, which will be delivered in 2023 The “MSC Splendida” of MSC Cruiseswent on its maiden voyage at Shanghai Cruise Home Port on May 18, 2018 Thegross tonnage is 138,000 t, the maximum capacity is 4363 persons, and the number

of crew is 1370 The gross tonnage of the “Bellissima” of MSC Cruises is 171,000 t,

Table 5 Newly-built cruise ships in global market in 2018

USD one million)

Tonnage (Unit:

10,000 GT)

Passenger volume (Unit:

Data source Cruise Lines International Association

and the maximum capacity is 5714 persons It will be formally named and launched

at Cruise Port of Southampton, England in March, 2019 and will be deployed for theChinese market in the Spring of 2020 The cruise ship currently is the cruise shipwith the greatest tonnage to be deployed at Chinese home port announced by MSCCruises

Table 6 Conditions of Royal Caribbean giant cruise ships

name

Launching time

Aggregate tonnage

Standard capacity

Maximum passenger capacity

Data source Royal Caribbean International

Table 7 Basic parameters of spectrum of the seas

tonnage

Standard capacity

Maximum passenger capacity

Number of crew

Construction cost

persons

5622 persons

1551 persons

USD 1.25 billion Total number of

decks

guest rooms

Data source Royal Caribbean International

2.4 The Economic Contribution of International Cruise

Industry Has Been Constantly Improved

Cruise industry is featured with long industry chain and strong economic drive.The industry chain involves upstream cruise ship design and construction, partssupply chain management and other links, midstream cruise lines management andcruise operation management, capital operation and other links, and downstreamcruise port services, cruise ship supply and other supporting services Therefore,the industry chain has obvious advantage to regional economy Cruise shipbuilding

is called as the “crown jewels” in shipbuilding The shipyards engaged in cruiseshipbuilding are mainly distributed in Europe, such as Italy, German, Finland andFrance There are important headquarters of international cruise lines and cruiseport business in America The direct economic contribution mainly comes fromthe purchase of the fuel, mechanical equipment, food, beverage and other goods andadministrative support, advertising, cruise ticket distribution, transportation and otherservices provided to cruise lines In Europe, in addition to the purchase of goods and

services brought by the operation of cruise lines, the construction and maintenance

of cruise ships are more important Europe is the most important construction andmaintenance base for cruise ship in the world, has an absolute share of the globalmarket and has been an important force for the development of cruise industry Theeconomic output contributed to Europe is relatively high

According to the statistics of CLIA, a total of 132 million tourists and staff of cruiseship took onshore excursions around the world in 2016 Their direct expenditure indestinations and other resource markets amounted to USD 58.43 billion, includingthe direct expenditure of cruise lines for purchasing products and services to supporttheir operation The direct, indirect and induced outputs incurred by such expenditureamounted to USD 126.4 billion 1033,100 employment positions and USD 41.21billion were provided The total output contribution in Europe was USD 50.09 billion.Such outputs contributed to the employment of 394,900 employees and paid USD1.125 billion for such employees The total output contribution of the United Stateswas USD 49.37 billion, created 400,600 employment positions and paid USD 2.082billion for such employees

In 2017, as a gathering place for cruise ship operation and construction, Europehad a total of 212 cruise ships operated in European market Only 75 cruise ships arenot owned by cruise lines in non-European regions As the cruise ships in Europe

is large in number and high in quality of product supply, more and more touristsdeparted from Europe to take cruise ships The number of cruise tourists at Euro-pean home port reached 6.5 million in 2017 A great amount of tourist consumptionand cruise ship maintenance and more cruise lines’ choosing to build cruise ships

in European shipyards made the economic contribution of European cruise industryimproved greatly In 2017, the economic contribution of European cruise indus-try reachede47.9 billion, among which, the expenses of cruise lines in Europeanshipyard reachede5.6 billion, increased by 22.4% compared with 2015 By 2021,European shipyard will build 66 new cruises for cruise lines The total value of suchcruises will reache29.4 billion The rapid development of cruise market providedmore employment opportunities In 2017, the new employment positions provided

by European cruise industry reached 43,000, making the total number of cruise ators reach 403,000 The economic contribution incurred by cruise tourists and crewreachede19.7 billion (Fig.13)

oper-In terms of the revenue of global cruise market in 2017, the revenue of Caribbeanstill ranked first in the world and accounted for 35.6% Caribbean can be said to bethe world’s preferred destination for cruise tourism and the most attractive region inglobal cruise market, mainly covering the eastern Caribbean, the southern Caribbean,the western Caribbean and the Bahamas The eastern Caribbean routes are basicallyscheduled for more than seven days and cover many islands, mainly including UnitedStates Virgin Islands, British virgin islands, Saint Martin, Antigua, Guadeloupe andMartinique Mediterranean took up 15.5% and ranked second As an intercontinentalsea, the Mediterranean Sea has relatively calm sailing areas with zigzag coastlineand many islands and is surrounded by many countries The design of most routes isbased on culture The purpose of most tourists is to explore The berthing destinationshave distinct features Mediterranean is the best choice for cruise trips in Europe Its

Fig 13 Revenue scale of global cruise market (Unit: USD 100 million) Data source Cruise Lines

International Association

cruise routes mainly cover the western Mediterranean and the eastern Mediterranean,attracting a large number of tourists from all over the world to the Mediterranean forcruise tourism The revenue of European (except for Mediterranean) cruise marketaccounted for 11.5% and ranked third The revenue of Asian cruise market accountedfor 10.9% and ranked fourth Asia is a rapidly developing emerging cruise market,especially with the improvement of income level and the increase of populationsize of China and India, and has the good cruise ship market development prospect,attracting more and more international cruise lines to develop new routes in Asia.The destinations in Southeast Asia region the most frequently visited by cruise shipsare Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand and so on The regions in northeast Asia isknown in the cruise industry as the Far East, which is mainly composed of China,Japan and Korea and is the most prosperous region of Asian cruise market (Fig.14).According to the change in year-on-year growth rate of the revenue of internationalregional cruise market in 2017, the growth rate of Mediterranean was 6%, but showed

a downtrend Its growth rate of market cruise was −11.9% The growth rate ofEuropean regions except for Mediterranean was 7.4% As an important emergingcruise market, Asian Cruise market had the highest growth rate in the world and was

as high as 23% The growth rate of Australia/New Zealand/the Pacific was 2.6%, andthat of Alaska was 6.8%; South America decreased by 5.3%, while other regions inthe world kept a growth rate of 6.5% (Fig.15)

Fig 14 Distribution of revenue share of global regional cruise market in 2017 Data source Bida

Consulting

Fig 15 Changes in year-on-year growth rate of revenue share of global regional cruise market in

2017 Data source Bida Consulting

2.5 The More Frequent Upgrade and Renovation of Cruise

Ships Promotes the Development of Cruise Ship

Maintenance Industry

According to the rules of the classification society and the practices of cruise lines,luxury cruise ships need special dock repair every five years and internal renovation

every 2–3 years Lots of the materials currently used for cruise ship construction andmaintenance in Europe come from China, which has a solid foundation in materials.There are 50 cruise ships need periodic dock repair and 80–100 cruise ships needinternal renovation in the world every year At present, the dock repair of the mostcruise ships is completed in Shipyards in America and Europe The shipyards in Chinahave limited opportunities to build or repair cruise ships, but have great potential.All cruise lines are renovating their cruise ships Royal Caribbean Line, for example,will invest USD 100 million and spend six weeks to renovate the Mariner of the seas.Costa Crociere SpA will update the SPA and fitness facilities on the Costa Magicacruise ship and add sauna rooms, bathing pools and hot spring areas.

mil-directly correlated to the good economic foundation of Asia According to the Asian Economic Outlook Index 2017, the outlook index of Asian economy in 2017 reached

84.1, which was 38.7 higher than that in 2016, indicating that the growth of Asianeconomy in 2017 was slow but steady The share of Asian economy in global econ-omy is increasing constantly According to the statistical data of the World Bank,Asian GDP accounted for 33.84% of global GDP and was higher than the 27.95%

of North America and the 21.37% of Europe (Fig.16)

In terms of the distribution of tourist source, China accounted for 67.8%, rankingfirst in Asia; Taiwan, China accounted for 7.6%; Singapore accounted for 6.4%; Japanaccounted for 7.0%; Hong Kong, China accounted for 3.6%; India accounted for3.9%; Malaysia accounted for 0.9%; Indonesia accounted for 0.8%; Korea accountedfor 0.9%; Philippines accounted for 0.5%; Thailand accounted for 0.3%; Vietnamaccounted for 0.1% In 2017, China remained the largest cruise tourist source market,still led the development of Asian cruise market and became the most importantmarket in Asian cruise market (Fig.17)

According to the statistical data of CLIA, in 2017 the transport capacity of Asiancruise market was 66 cruise ships, and the number of cruise ship brands reached

35 In 2016, the transport capacity was 31, with four cruise ship brands increased.The number of cruise ships berthing at Asian cruise ports reached 7196 in 2017 and

5500 in 2016, showing a year-on-year growth of 30.8% In terms of the size of cruiseships, among the 66 cruise ships, the number of mid-sized cruise ships increased

Fig 16 Changes in number of tourists of asian cruise market (Unit: 10,000 persons) Data source

Cruise Lines International Association

Fig 17 Changes in tourist sources of Asian cruise market Data source Cruise Lines International

Association

the most and by 5 The number of mid-sized cruise ships was 26 and accounted for40% The number of giant cruise ships increased 3 The main Asian cruise lines wereOceania Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Hapag-Lloyd Cruise, Holland AmericaCruise, AIDA Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises, Seabourn Cruises, Orion ExpeditionCruises, Silversea Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Windstar Cruises,Silversea Expedition Cruises, Ponant Cruises, Princess Cruises, Royal CaribbeanCruises, Costa Cruises, Asuka Cruise and Star Cruises, etc (Fig.18)

The 4–6-night short routes were still the main routes and accounted for 52% ofthe total number of routes in 2017, and accounted for 48% in 2016, showing a year-on-year growth of 4% The proportion of 2–3-night products was 31%, and was 32%